Chapter 6

Cuteness trouble

"So we'll wait until the meeting and then hope Arthur has solved everything?"

Tino couldn't tear his eyes away. The voice, the big eyes, the puffy cheeks, it was all too adorable for him. Berwald was still looking at him while waiting for an answer when Mathias came back carrying a plate with toast, coffee and cinnamon buns. His eyes where still a bit teary when he sat down next to Berwald but he managed to keep quiet. Tino was finally broken out of his trance when he received a smoking hot cup of coffee.

"Yes, the meeting will be the day after tomorrow. We've asked all other nations to-" Tino was stunned silent when Berwald took a big bite of a sandwich and most of the marmalade ended up around his mouth instead of inside it.

"-to check on their closest friends so we can make sure no one is in any direct danger." Mathias finished while he tried to not become captivated by the small nation just as Tino was. Berwald nodded and tried to not notice their stares while taking another bite.

"Well, that sounds good I guess" Berwald said and looked at Tino that took a sip from his coffee to try and distract himself. Tino suddenly realized something.

"You're speaking perfectly" Tino stared at Berwald that stopped eating in the middle of a bite and felt his face get pale. He glanced quickly towards Mathias that had a sinking feeling in his stomach. Tino noticed the atmosphere change and quickly added "Well that's good right?". Berwald started chewing slowly again and Mathias gave of a small fake laugh in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"It's probably something with the spell right?" He smiled and even though Tino understood that there was something the others weren't telling him, he let it pass this time. The awkward silence was interrupted by a phone call to Mathias cellphone. Relieved, he stood up and left the room before he picked up.

"Hello, this is Mathias" He was met with complete silence on the other end of the phone. "Hello?" he said again but then he heard something that sounded like footsteps on the other end. He waited and could make out a door slamming before he finally heard some voices.

"What is it Alfred? Didn't we tell you to call Mathias?" There was a moment of silence before he could hear an "Oh right" and someone else picking up the phone. "Are you still there?"

"Yes, what are you guys doing?"

"Well, we're all just a bit tired." Francis sighed into the phone. "It's been a long day" He looked around the room. There was even more books and papers spread out all over the place than it had been in the morning and at the far end of the room he could see Arthur fast asleep, almost completely covered in notes he had written. "We have made some progress"

"Great! Tell me about it!" Mathias felt hopeful, if they could solve this without having to hold a world meeting it would be perfect. He felt guilty about all this, if he hadn't interrupted the spell all of this might not have happened. On the other hand, something might have happened to Lukas and that would have been much worse. Mathias sat down on the handmade couch and listened to Francis.

"Apparently we are all affected by different kinds of spells and Arthur thinks that he might be able to cancel them out one by one." He looked over at the exhausted Arthur that was mumbling in his sleep. "But to not take any risks I think he'd like to come over to Lukas house"

"Well that's fine, when will you come here?" While Mathias and Francis was making plans, Tino was finally able to tear his eyes away from Berwald and was now looking out the window with his thoughts whirling around in his head. He was worried, he was worried about a lot of things. What if they didn't manage to undo this? Would he have to be a woman forever then? With a glance towards Berwald he figured he still wouldn't be the worst one off but it would still take some time to adjust. A lot of questions flew through his head. How do you manage long hair? Would he have to buy bras? Aren't those expensive? How would he shower? Why was his back starting to hurt? How could Berwald look so adorable? When that last thought came to mind he realized that he was once again staring at Berwald that tried very hard not to notice it. While blushing, Tino stood up and walked outside to get some fresh air.

Alone once again Berwald finally relaxed and let out a sigh he had been holding in. He was used to people staring at him but this was a whole new kind of stare. It was not the "Oh god please don't beat me up and eat me" stare, it was more of a "Look at this helpless child, we need to protect it" kind of stare and he didn't like it. He didn't like feeling helpless. He also didn't like that Tino seemed to feel so down about this whole situation. He hated when Tino felt sad, especially when he didn't know what to do to make it better, and the problem was so silly. Even if he had a different body, it was still Tino and it was Tino he adored. Though he would never have the courage to admit it. Mathias returned from the other room at the same time as Tino returned from outside.

"We should start driving back soon, Arthur will be coming later tonight and we should probably be there when he arrives." Berwald nodded and hopped of the couch to the others delight. They cleaned up the mess they had made and left the house, locked the door and walked out to the car. Mathias opened the back door and made some adjustments, he popped up a built in car seat for children since Berwald was too short for the seat belt without it. Mathias then turned towards him while making an inviting movement with his hand.

"No way" Berwald stared at him and shook his head. This was more than he could handle in a day. Or in a life time for all that matters.

"Come on, we can't afford another ticket so we'll have to follow the law this time". Berwald squinted at him, probably questioning why they already had gotten a ticket, and slowly made his way towards the car. He ignored Mathias hand that was reached out to help him and managed to climb inside. Mathias rounded the car chuckling and sat down in the driver seat with Tino next to him. He started the car and they drove off towards the Norwegian border.

.

Antonio woke up at the same time as the other nations but with a splitting headache, when the wave hit he had fallen hard onto the stone floor. He got up and managed to walk into the big, open kitchen where he sat down on a chair. The headache was already fading showing one of the perks of being a country. But something felt off and he couldn't say exactly what it was. Suddenly, he saw a movement at the corner of his eye and looked over. He stood up and walked to the window where he could see that it was very late. He squinted and once again he saw movement from the other side of the big lawn that he always looked over with great care. Antonio grabbed the closes weapon he could find which was a cooking pot laying in the sink, ready to get cleaned, and walked while trying to not make a single sound outside.

"Who's there?" If this was just any day he would have walked over, unarmed, and invited the person, he could see a shadow perfectly shaped like a human standing there, standing amongst the trees inside but today had been strange all over. It started with an argument between him and Lovino, they usually didn't actually fight even though Lovino often called him some mean things. Antonio knew he didn't actually mean it. But today he had gotten mad at something and they had had a big falling out and right now he couldn't even remember what they fought about. Then that weird wave hit and he passed out and now this. The person was standing completely still so Antonio carefully snuck closer. He couldn't see him clearly because of the dark so he closed the last few steps between them and lifted his hand.

"Are you oka-" He froze in the middle of reaching out towards the "person" and then burst out laughing. It was just a tree oddly shaped like a person. When his laughter had faded into giggles he turned towards the house again and walked over the lawn. He figured he had gotten a bit paranoid after his weird day. It felt good laughing a bit and he felt his tension slowly fade away. Nothing had actually happened and he decided that he would talk to Lovino in the morning. He felt more positive as he came closer to the house and thought about what "I'm sorry" gift would be the best one.

That's probably why he made the mistake of letting his guard down.